A Thorn In My Side
by Chaanoua
Summary: Specter's escaped again. This time he has new goals besides world domination; his eye must be set on eliminating the young adults whom have been ruining his plans since their basic childhood. Jake and Spike are still not talking, and the Professor has had it with these situations. How will Specter be-rid of the everlasting thorns in his side? And can friendship be rebuilt?
1. Chapter 1

It had been weeks, _weeks. _Weeks since Specter had been freed from this prison of human design. Freedom tasted sweet, and revenge would too. The albino had plans, big plans. They mostly focused on getting rid of the ape catchers themselves rather than world domination. He couldn't pull off a plot if they were in his way, and that was basis for them to be removed from the situation entirely.

First, however, he'd need to get away from this facility. After the whole thing concerning the Mercury bomb and him, Specter was locked away in a maximum security cell. This cell was like a large box, created out of shield generators formed around him like a cube; the cube structure derived him of his abilities. However, for the purposes of finding what went wrong with the original peak point helmet, the scientists working the laboratory had left him with his advanced helmet, albeit suppressed by the fields around him.

There was no way to open the cell from the inside, and everything was controlled in a control room by a computer terminal that he'd never reach. Thankfully, Specter hadn't gone down the last time without a plan; during the events of the bomb threat the ape had built himself a substantial amount of probes, hidden deep within the confines of the earth. The only way to activate these drones was through a special helmet signature, which could only be sent at full power. Coincidentally, today would've been the day the staff left the fields up but unstressed the albino's abilities; this small flaw in their testing designs would allow him to escape.

A small team of ape professionals approached Specter's cell, check-board in hand as well as special hand held equipment to take proper notes of his behavior via data input. The team started to hook up the much larger computers, capable of taking information the hand held ones couldn't. The whole time the only reaction they got out of the white spider monkey was his ever lasting smirk of arrogance.

"What's he so happy about?" A dark haired professor asked another scientists as they connected tubes to a computer. The other shrugged "I don't know but that expression gets on my nerves. Always so damn smug."

A hiss indicated that the computers and the cell were now linked, and the hum of generators starting up filled the room. Specter could feel it even now, his helmet being allowed to reach full power, uninhibited by the machines. Silently, the albino's homing beacon activated, a snicker escaping his throat.

"Status?" The head researcher requested, a middle aged female of American ethnicity, dark red hair and what appeared to be a small scar under her lip.

"Everything's normal," replied another scientist, female as well but darker skinned with black hair; she was naturally Japanese, and fresh out of college. "We can proceed."

_Crash!_

The researchers all brought up their arms to shield themselves as something caused an impact in the ceiling, allowing debris to shower down upon them. Three octopus like drones hovered down through the giant hole, metallic tendrils that ended in grip claws flowing. Specter crossed his arms, looking at the researchers as they regained their bearings.

"What the heck are those?" Asked the Japanese one.

Before the others could answer, the drone brought down its metal claw on one of the generators of Specter's cubical cell, exerting enough force to break it; the metal component simply broke and fell off, nothing more than dented metal at this point. Specter watched gloriously as the energy around him dissipated, his concealment was at an end.

"We need security!" The head researcher yelled over the radio, desperate to get the simian re-contained. The three drones quickly went to work on dealing with the researchers, sparing them from death but leaving all of them sprawled out on the floor, knocked out.

"I told you guys, I never lose." Specter stated, sadistically watching the carnage unfold. The albino was now free to leave the facility, moreover he didn't wish to be intercepted by guards. Levitating himself, Specter quickly flew out through the hole the drones created; the drones themselves staying behind as a surprise for the guards that would show up any minute.

He had done it, again. Escaping from the humans was always so easy! "They _really _need to up their game if they think they can contain someone as god-like as myself." He commented aloud, waiting until he had traveled far enough to be sure he was untraceable and couldn't be found.

"All I need to do is create a base of operations," he thought, crossing his arms in the air as he continued to hover; "then I can deal with those idiots myself." Concluding his course of actions, the albino projected himself through the evening sky until he was no where to be seen.

_Ring ring._

_Ring ring_

_Ring ring_

Doctor Ozel opened his eyes slowly, the sound of the insistent phone waking him from his precious rest. The elderly man was now close to 76, and quite clearly would run better throughout the day with a full night sleep. However, the ringing was so loud there was no ignoring it. Sighing, he crawled out of bed, wearing his green pajamas.

"Oh... Who could it be at this hour?" He questioned rhetorically, rubbing his head in frustration whilst walking to the phone. Getting a glimpse of the clock, the Professor saw it was about twelve in the morning -_midnight. _

"Hello?" He asked sheepishly, raising the phone to his head.

"Doctor Ozel, it's an emergency." Replied another voice.

"Who is this?"

"It's the research team you handed Specter and the helmets over to. He's escaped again."

Ozel sighed, feeling like throwing the phone in frustration. How does that monkey keep doing this?

"How did he get away _this _time?" Ozel asked, a hint of accusation in his tone.

"We were running a test to see the effects of the helmet on Specter's brain at full power. It seems he had some sort of homing device embedded in the helmet that we didn't catch, and it signaled robots."

"Was anyone hurt?" The Professor asked, worried about those who had encountered the breakout firsthand.

"The researchers had mild injuries, the drones blew themselves up when the security team arrived. Besides some shrapnel in their legs and arms, no one is dead."

"Thank god."

"We just thought we'd inform you. No action on your part is needed."

"Alright, thank you."

After a few seconds, the phone began playing the dial tone as the other person had hung up,. Silently, the Professor thought about how this could be happening _**again**_. He couldn't get involved, not this time. The situations his helmets and inventions had caused was enough to guilt trip him out of the simian research team entirely; however it seemed that every time this sort of thing occurred everybody always insisted on including him. Just once, the ex researcher would've liked to be left unaware to what the hell was going on.

"Here we go again..." He murmured, head pounding.

Where could Specter have gone off to this time? What could he be planning. Without a guess in the world the only thing the Professor could come to a endpoint to was they'd find out eventually.


	2. Chapter 2

Specter had been planning this scheme since he was captured and imprisoned, a plot that would drown out the ape catcher's influence in his life... permanently. It was beyond the albino's mind originally to strike down his foes, as doing something of the sort would give way to his human emotions. He attempted to do the opposite by turning them into servants but Jake came along and ruined that. Jake of all people, the side kick, the begrudged lover boy of some old man's daughter had defeated him and stopped his plot to blow up the earth. Unacceptable.

"If I am to ever win, these people must be removed. Otherwise, I will always be the loser." He stated to himself aloud, sitting in his hover chair that he rebuilt some time ago, red and blue just like his first chair was. Resting against the back board of his throne, he rested a cheek on his knuckles. He had yet to break the monkeys out of the park, as doing so would send a signal flare that would have every ape catcher on his tracks. Not that he probably didn't already have someone looking for him. Clearing his throat he leaned forward, draping his arms over his knees, causing the bang of his hair to droop down for a second, letting his other eye be visible for a few moments. "Stealth is on my side, I'd best begin work." He commented, before guiding his throne over to a terminal workstation...

Spike and Jake were still not speaking, even now, in the same room with each other, they refused to even give one another a glance. Natalie sat next to Jake now, being his girlfriend even if he was a little younger than she was. She could feel the tension between the two, like a bungee cord having been stretched out to its near breaking point, requiring only pressure to snap -and she felt like that pressure.

"I wonder why the Professor called us here," Spike asked, breaking the silence. Being in the waiting lounge of the Professor's lab, waiting. None of them were given any details about being asked to come, just the request itself over the phone this morning. When the doors finally did hiss and parted from each other allowing the old man dressed in white and green to step out of his lab, Ozel frowned and bowed his head; "The reason I brought you all here today is because I got reports that Specter escaped again the other night." Every last one of the others groaned in frustration. "How did he escape from a government prison?" Jake asked frantically in disbelief. "They tried to run a diagnostic test with a confiscated peak point helmet, he used it to summon robots that broke him out." Natalie could feel her eyes about to water, not this again. Specter was dangerous, more so considering his last plan was purely with lethal intention. What would he do next? Another bomb?

"I'm not going to get involved this time." Ozel explained, looking disappointed in himself for this resolution that he had to keep. "I would recommend you do so too." Spike stood up, clenching his fist in anger, "and what if Specter does something horrible?" The professor turned to the red and yellow haired boy and shrugged, "The government did this, they can take care of it." The three young adults all wanted to protest against the idea of not getting involved, but they did see that the Professor was right in a way. The Professor had stopped all simian research, discarded the helmets, and has been focusing primarily on time travel ever since, the Government could have avoided trying to copy Ozel's research, but instead they allowed their worst enemy to escape. "You're right... We shouldn't clean up this mess, we didn't make it." Jake replied, hoping that Natalie and even Spike would agree. "I suppose," replied Spike while Natalie just simply nodded.

The Professor wiped some sweat off of his brow, a forced smile spreading on his lips, "Care to come see the Time Machine Mark 2?"

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**Sorry for the late chapter, never intended for it to take this long but due to a large amount of RP's I had going I just needed a break; now I feel the urge to write again and what better than to continue my sequel to Ape Escape 4: Monkey Madness that also fills the holes left by Operation: Raid. Read and Review and expect a new chapter soon!**


	3. Chapter 3

The Professor lead the group into the back of the laboratory, hoping to take their minds off the current situation by showing the new system he had been working on; in place of the Peak Point Helmets the Professor had dedicated his life to focusing on time travel, as much as he could. One day he hoped to go back in time and stop himself from creating the peak point helmet, but that was relatively difficult to do without possibly causing unseen damage to the future time line. Right now, Specter and his past atrocities would remain in the history books. This continued to haunt the elderly man mostly because he blamed himself for the Specter incident. The Time Machine, the helmets, even Jake were all used for evil purposes because of his simian research. He couldn't blame it on an accident, he had known the risk, and Tomoki was a gigantic warning to end the project. Those government endorsements looked fine at first, but now at the end he saw how much trouble he alone had caused.

"Professor?" Natalie asked, worried. Doctor Ozel snapped back to reality, realizing in mid walk he had stopped and wandered off into his domain of worry and regret. "Oh, sorry, when you're old like me you sometimes forget where you are going. The Time Machine is this way." He excused, taking a left turn and then heading down the corresponding hallway in a brisk walk. Natalie didn't fall for it however; being the Professor's granddaughter had the perk of knowing when he was down, or blaming himself for something. The Professor had not been the same since the Monkey Park incident, and every following event only chipped away at his sanity further. She didn't like to see him blaming himself for things that were out of his control, but it seemed she just couldn't get him to realize that Specter turning evil and attempting world domination was not his fault…

_Flash Back_

The blade of some sort of industrial saw pierced through the lab blast doors, sirens going off everywhere. Casi, who was also the lab's security besides her function of being just the Professor's assistant had activated them upon seeing hordes of apes riot together outside. "Professor," the avatar addressed, a nearby screen with her image appearing on it with a simulated worry expression, "I am not sure how long the defenses will hold out before they get through." Next to her television was another of the news, with Specter broadcasting from the TV station all sorts of propaganda, seated on his red and blue throne.

"Attention humans, this is a message from your new king and ultimate leader, Specter. I now have the world firmly within my grasp, and my armies have slowly but surely altered history to give me the upper advantage. I can bring stationary armor to life, create monsters, and create whatever I dream up. All countries on this dust ball have 72 hours to submit to my rule or face destruction at my hand! You have my word your populaces will not be harmed if you submit."

_Submission was not an option…_

In a rush, the Professor quickly gave his set of orders to Casi to record a message to Spike upon his return to the present time, as well as detailed instructions for Casi to give to Spike about Specter's base. Realizing most, if not all, lab technology present would be confiscated or destroyed, Ozel promptly ordered Casi to power down to avoid detection. Shortly thereafter, the monkeys broke in through the cut shape in the iron door, capturing them both. Jake, who had leaded the assault, waited outside with two mechs and his new car that he'd use to kill Spike given the chance. "Put them in the UFO," he commanded, pointing to a large monkey UFO with enough room for the two prisoners to sit in. Natalie felt tears coming to her eyes, cheeks blushing red hot in desperation. "Jake please! This isn't you! Snap out of it!" Her pleas went unnoticed by the younger male, who then disembarked in his car shortly after. Specter who had a drone watching over the situation sat back and relaxed in his throne, pleased at all of this. Victory was his!

"Excellent, now all I have to do is deal with Spike." He thought, an evil grin spreading across his lips like a disease. Crossing his arms, the albino knew that Spike probably survived the gigantic armor he left to kill the interloper, but this time Spike would be put up against a very different challenge –the battle cruiser itself.

"Yes," he hissed, eyes glowing red in evil intent, "I will have his soul… or his life." Specter was going to keep his earlier promise of not letting anything get in his way. About ten minutes later the two captives were dragged into the throne room on top of the large skyscraper, causing Specter to turn towards the two gun toting monkeys guarding him for them to leave whilst the two red pants with the hostages moved Natalie and her grandfather to face their leader.

"Hello, my little lab _rats_." Specter greeted a grin on his face. "Before we start you should be thankful nothing horrible happened to you upon capture, you've helped that red head hurt quite a few of my soldiers." He explained, moving his chair closer to them. "However, I cannot promise this safety if you refuse to do a few things for me."

The Professor looked to Specter, then back to his granddaughter. He knew Specter wanted him specifically but would most likely use Natalie against him if he refused, at the same time what kind of monster would that make him in return?

"No. I will not help you! You're crazy! You're insane!" Ozel spat, lurching forward to drive his point, practically yelling. Specter's smirk turned into a giant, displeased frown, hovering away from the two and sighing in disappointment. "Here I had thought we could have some sort of agreement, you know. I help you, you help me. I bet you're worried about the rebuttal of helping me, right? Well tell me Doctor, hypothetically, if Spike succeeds who will be to blame for this incident? _You, your research, your helmets, your time machines, and even some of your weapons."_ Specter enjoyed flaunting this little fact over the old man, if Spike won the Professor lost in a way. "Now then, are you ready to be useful now?" Specter offered again, clearly he was not going to be asking again. The Professor knew the albino spoke the truth, but refused to be bribed into helping the downfall of his species.

"My answer is still no!" He shouted, impressing Natalie with his bravery even in the face of pure evil. "Fine then, if you won't be useful to me then you won't be useful to anyone." Specter said, angry now. "Make something horrible happen to them," Specter ordered, smirking as he watched the two black pants draw their guns. They were going to kill both of the prisoners' right here, right now. That is, until the elevator door opened and Jake came running up to them –completely ignoring the suffering of his former peers. "Lord Specter," he addressed, breathing heavily. Specter waved his hand, calling off the execution at the last second and nodding to Jake, "Yes?" He replied simply. Jake looked his leader in the eye, "Spike just teleported into the middle of city central and he's heading to the ransacked lab, sir." He reported. Specter nodded, already having seen this coming. "Dispatch armed forces to guard the generator and factory, lethal force is to be used, Jake." Specter ordered, watching the blue haired boy nod and race back to the elevator to go alert the other monkeys of the danger. Returning his view to the tied up pair of captives, "It seems I still have some use for you, a bargaining tool for Spike, yes? I think you can stay right here with me for a while…"

_End Flash Back_

At this time, Natalie realized just how much she had missed. The Professor had already finished showing them the new time machine and she had missed all of it! "Damn it!" She thought, but realized it'd be awkward and stressful for Ozel to repeat his sentences again. Everyone looked mesmerized by the intelligent design of the strange machine, with Jake being the first to ask "Can I take a trip in it?"

The professor simply smiled and shook his head, "It's still unstable. I need to develop the mechanism on how to choose the correct time and moment to teleport to; otherwise you could end up in a random place you didn't want to be." Jake looked slightly disappointed, as did the rest, but they accepted the time machine was still in beta.

Jake however did not wish to use the time machine to go and visit old memories or beat Spike at Mortal Combat; his reasons had to do with their proposed reason for not speaking to each other. Jake knew during the Mercury bomb and the unveiling of Spike's actions that everyone had been under Specter's brain washing. He was the first victim, and he knew what it was like. Becoming a cold, emotionless human, only allowed to think when the glorious leader spoke, almost like a puppet. The infraction was too great to dismiss as a myth but also unbelievable as well, leaving Jake with no other choice but to avoid speaking to Spike whilst not hating him.

_**I must find out the truth…**_

**And so ends another chapter! For those of you who do not know, during the events of Monkey Madness/AE4 Specter corrupts Spike and Natalie, telling Jake they've had a secret relationship for quite a while now, which caused Jake to immensely distrust Spike. I would recommend reading that if you're lost. R&amp;R Please!**


	4. Chapter 4

Specter's plans were now coming to their final destination, a good three days of work being put into this scheme. Construction of his new project would continue to commence even during the initial invasion. Drones that were built by the albino had already flooded to the nearby amusement parks, ready to release the monkeys to do his bidding once more. This time Specter was going to be extra cautious, and while he would of course reveal himself to the now adult ape catchers, he wasn't going to tell them the depths of his plans as he did countless times before. Sitting in his throne, Specter telepathically initiated the drones to do their work. Countless robots flew down from the skies, raining havoc on any amusement park with monkeys, releasing all of them and laying waste to the parks. The monkeys became a large brown cluster as they raced out of their respective parks and into the busy streets, hopping over the cars and even road blocks set up by police. A few monkeys who were unlucky or not fast enough were tranquilized by the Japanese police that were responding to another one of Specter's terrorist attacks, but the sheer amount of escaping primates overwhelmed any police efforts.

The locales of downtown Tokyo were watching the live news broadcast, but those broadcasts were quickly overwritten by a message from the perpetrator himself, the black suit wearing Specter himself. "Greetings again, my favorite lesser species." He said laughing at the sheer panic he was instilling. The people of Japan felt a very _justified _uneasy feeling strike them. "It's me again, and this time there will be no failure. Your future belongs to me now, and there is nothing that will reverse that. There's still the matter of my former enemies of course…"

Casi had been showing this broadcast to the ape catchers for a while now, as when Spike heard about it he called the Professor, who quickly called everyone else over to the lab. All of the adults listened closely, the only teenagers being Kei, Yumi, and Jimmy, not making a sound as Specter addressed them.

"_I can promise that these people who have saved you multiple times from my rule are soon to be out of the picture. The resistance they put up through the years was impressive enough to stall me, but never stop me." _The albino continued, clasping his hands together to keep a very confident image, _"However, that's all in the past now. They're adults, and I have heard Doctor Ozel has decided to cover up his past by focusing on Time Travel –how sad." _Specter's mocking did not disturb the Professor, who realized the day would come people were once again reminded of his faults. The elderly scientist simply continued to stare at the screen, frustration and worry mixing. _"I am going to enslave an entire world, and then maybe even a galaxy. The governments of the Earth have twenty-four hours to surrender to me or face retribution. As of now, Spike, Jimmy, Kei, and Yumi along with their benefactors Natalie, the Professor, and Aki are fugitives under my new regime. I also expect these humans to be turned over to me if captured." _

**Fugitives? Criminals? He branded us criminals!**

Natalie was fuming at this; Specter was terrorizing the people into madness! No doubt, people would be looking for the group now out of fear and desperation to appease Specter. It wasn't long after the broadcast ended that a large, red force field started to encase the entire city, making sure no outside interference would occur. Specter's robotic minions began to fill the street, tearing through whatever local police forces attempting to stop them.

"We have to turn on the lab defenses!" Ozel exclaimed, turning back to Casi whom had manifested her young avatar on screen, "Orders professor?"

"Turn on all blast doors, raise the defense shield, and prepare the emergency bunker."

"Of course, sir." Casi replied, causing all windows in the lab to be covered with a titanium door and the lights to turn to a red hue. Jimmy did not like the environment, and was deeply bothered by the dark lighting color while Kei simply looked dumbfounded and distracted –Yumi was furious. "We should go do something!" She demanded, stomping her foot into the ground. Spike shook his head at his younger relative, "No, Specter would punish the entire city, or would try to kill us and in the process hurt someone else. We have to hide and hope it blows over."

"How can it blow over if no one is out there to stop Specter?" Jake testified, questioning Spike on purpose. The red head refused to argue with his former friend and walked off to another area of the room, agitated.

"This is not just about us," Natalie said, looking over all of them despite apparent tears rushing down her cheeks. "There are other people out there that could get hurt badly if we do anything right now. He tried to completely blow up the planet last time to go colonize the moon; Specter has reached a boiling point."

"Natalie, it _is _about us!" Jimmy spoke up, a bit of courage in his voice. "Specter is only doing this to hunt us down, maybe we should… surrender?"

Jake looked like he wanted to punch Jimmy, but Spike cut off Jake from doing so, "Jimmy if we do that Specter will win." He replied simply.

"We all know Specter is highly dangerous, and is willing to get to us no matter how much damage it causes. If we try resisting right now, unprepared, we will lose and have no hope. We're not surrendering, and we're not fighting either. We're hiding in the lab. It's too much of a risk to play hero right now." The Professor stated, firmly believing in his choice to avoid conflict. The others, all realizing that the Professor was quite correct in his assumption, did not argue further.

"_Let's just hope I'm not going to get us all caught…" _Ozel thought to himself. "We need to get to the underground bunker, all of you go!" He ordered, watching as the flock of teens and adults fled out of the room. "Casi, no matter what happens, do not open that door." He reminded before following suit. The virtual assistant nodded, _"You can count on me, Professor." _She said after him.

**So ends another chapter! R&amp;R.**


	5. Chapter 5

Not more than a mere two hours after the original broadcast, monkeys armed with various weapons started to march down the street in a mass parade, the government of Japan deciding to give in and negotiate with Specter seeing as how his technology would easily destroy their army and simply make matters worse. If anything, their only reliance was hope that some higher power could possibly intervene but at this time, that hope had no real basis to fuel it.

Victory propaganda written by Specter filled the ears of the human citizens as they watched helplessly, the apes ransacking anything that praised the ape catchers as heroes, and forcing anyone with relation to zoos, theme parks, or other entertainment forms using monkeys being herded somewhere else off grid.

"_This is a new age for all of us. I promise you that my rule will not be unjust cruelty but changes will be made. Immigration will come to a halt, and countries shall become districts for their human occupants." _

No one **believed **these lies, in fact, no one really listened to the prattle of the digital screens or the loudspeakers blaring Specter's rhetoric. However, what were their choices? If anyone tried to oppose the incoming invasion they would be harmed or sent off to some form of concentration camp.

A father clutched on to his nine year old son, keeping the Japanese boy quite close. The middle aged man locked his dark brown eyes onto the primates, protective of his child.

"_Furthermore for the children of the new age, a new form of youth have arrived –Specter Youth, and it is mandatory all children attend to learn the basics of their new role." _

Hearing those words, he knew what would come next and sure enough a black pants monkey noticed the duo on the side walk and approached with a red pants as back up. A few screeches of orders escaped the monkey's mouth and they translated directly to ordering the other monkey to take the child.

"You can't have him!" The adult replied, reaching into his carryon back and pulling an extendable baton, trying to swing at the monkey pulling his son away, however the original black pants retaliated by delivering a gunshot to the shoulder of the grown up –luckily for him that round being rubber bullets. The weapon of the red pants however, was quite the real machine gun, which was now pointed at his head.

"Don't worry daddy!" The child yelled loudly, tears descending down his flushed cheeks. "Spike and his friends will save us!"

The monkeys decided to agree that with his arm now ringing with pain and due to his old age he was not a threat any longer, simply pulling the boy away from his father into the separate march of other children stripped from their parents and forced to walk to an unknown fate.

Without his son, he began to cry, whispering to himself as he clenched a fist and hit the ground a plea for the monkeys to leave his son unharmed.

Inside the new headquarters of the regime, which used to be the Tokyo Metropolitan office, Specter continued to receive an influx of update and status messages about the smaller riots going on in other areas of Japan –small riots lead by humans trying to keep Specter out of their area, a fruitless effort to be sure. The last monkey to leave the office room reported that not only had the children been taken to the proper internment camps; a place where they would be sent to various schools for re-education. The final comment from the monkey liege being there had been no sightings of ape catchers attempting to resist him. The albino was pleased. Such a quick attack caught everyone off guard, leaving the major country of Japan a defenseless victim to his blackmail and authority. Furthermore, with no ape catchers appearing yet, the citizens were quite happy to do as they were told.

"As long as they obey me I'll keep my promises." Specter thought to himself, crossing his legs in his non-hovercraft office chair, leaning back into it with a large grin. "If Spike or any of those kids try to get in the way, group punishment for all. That'll turn the people against them and further my agenda."

**R&amp;R, apologies for the chapter delays! **


	6. Chapter 6

Japan was completely under Specter's control, his image pasted all over the town. The neighboring Asian countries had immediately closed their borders in response to Specter's sacking of Japan, with the militaries being mobilized –but no one dared set foot in the sunrise nation. Specter's advanced technology would easily repel an invasion, and more than likely a defense; but for now the armed forces of the neighbors would keep Specter confined in his bubble. Specter didn't care very much though, because their fear of him meant no interference. He wasn't going to attempt a global siege until the ape catchers were dealt with.

Specter had already located some of his previous enemies, Aki and Helga, whom were out getting something to eat at the time of the surprise attack and were captured almost immediately. Two black pant monkeys brought the two before their white leader in the massive control room, blue lights illuminating the walls.

"Well, well, well..." Specter muttered, swiveling his mechanized chair around to face his captives; behind him was a large hologram of earth with Japan in the red, signifying countries under his control. "If it isn't Aki and the esteemed Helga, Spike's little girlfriend." After the whole event with Natalie, and Jake ending up being her boyfriend, Spike gained new interest in Helga after the arena events and pipotron catastrophe. Helga was rather shy underneath her tough exterior and didn't know how to approach Spike's obvious affection, and Specter knew all of this just by briefly scanning her mind with his own.

"Let us go!" Aki demanded, pulling at her handcuffs which kept her arms tied behind her back. "If you think holding us here is going to do anything you're mistaken, Specter." Helga added, remaining calm in her kneeling position but glaring at the monkey leader with hatred. Specter chuckled and then drew in closer on his throne, looking down upon the two.

"I don't think you understand why I brought you two here. So I'll make this quick because I am too busy to hold a lengthy conversation with you." Specter replied, his chair moving to the side as the hologram of earth turned into the face of Spike –sending a nervous feeling right into both of the girl's guts. "You two are going to work for me, I need other brilliant minds advancing my technologies." Specter explained, clasping his fingers together and resting his chin on top. "Spike and your friends will be unharmed if you comply with me, but if you refuse... I'll just be forced to kill you all." Snickering, the ape moved back into his previous position and crossed his legs, the smirk on his face growing more cruel. "I won't kill you first, either. I'll keep you both alive so you can watch it happen. Maybe I won't even kill you, perhaps I'll just make the energies in your monkey net's unstable and trap you all in limbo forever."

The room was silent for a good few minutes, Helga and Aki both mortified at what they were hearing but angry as well –Specter had some nerve to threaten them with the death of their friends or some eternal punishment. On one hand they could possibly keep their friends and family from harm by complying, on the other hand, they'd be making it harder for Specter to be defeated.

"I will never assist you with my father's knowledge," Helga defiantly spat. Aki seemed nervous about the choices in front of her but once Helga spoke up, the red headed scientist joined in on her rebellion. "You can forget about ever having morph-gear or any of my inventions either, Specter."

Specter wasn't at all upset about their negative answers, he expected them after all. Defiant to the end, their courage would never let them submit that easily -that's fine of course. Specter was not the type to avoid a challenge, he welcomed such. "You would rather suffer than reap what I have to offer? Fine then. I'll take what I want!"

Specter stretched out his hands, and energy shot from them. The two girls found themselves entrapped within an electrified dome of pure kinetic energy, increasing the pressure on their bodies until agonizing pain was the result, combined with the electricity stimulating their receptors and brains, keeping them from passing out. It was so bad the two couldn't even scream, all they could do was slowly slump to the ground as their bodies acted as a conduit for Specter's energies. Stopping right before it could do any serious damage, Specter leaned back and smiled at the pair.

"I'll just have to make you do what I want. It's not the first time I forced someone to be my slave –remember Jake? Remember what I did to all of them not so long ago? I'll take my time with this though, because when it comes down to it..." Specter's fists began to glow again, just as Aki and Helga managed to shakily sit up again.

"I just really hate all of you."

Specter then returned to pummeling them both with his powers, the megalomaniac expression on his face becoming more twisted with pure evil each second that went by...


End file.
